Association between vegetables and fruits consumption and depressive symptoms in a middle-aged Chinese population: An observational study.

There is scarce evidence regarding the association between the consumption of vegetables and fruits and depressive symptoms in Chinese population. The purpose of this study was to ascertain the influence of vegetables and fruits consumption on depressive symptoms in a middle-aged Chinese population. This study comprised 1676 Chinese adults aged between 45 and 59 years, who participated in a Health Survey at the time of periodic checkup in the city of Linyi, Shandong Province, China. Dietary intake was assessed using a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire (FFQ). Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression (CES-D) scale. Log-binomial regression analysis was used to evaluate the association between the consumption of vegetables and fruits and depressive symptoms. A total of 53 participants (3.2%) were classified as having depressive symptoms. After adjustment for confounding variables, participants in the highest quartile of the fruits consumption and vegetables consumption had lower prevalence ratio (PR) for depressive symptoms (PR = 0.76; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.603-0.974, P = .042; PR = 0.77; 95% CI: 0.612-0.977, P = .045) than those in the lowest quartile. Moreover, those in the highest quartile of total vegetables and fruits consumption had also a lower PR of depressive symptoms (PR = 0.67; 95% CI: 0.503-0.806, P = .037) than did those in the lowest quartile.Our findings indicate that higher consumption of vegetables and fruits is significantly associated with a lower risk of depressive symptoms. Further prospective studies are needed to confirm these findings.

Dietary patterns derived by factor analysis are associated with cognitive function among a middle-aged and elder Chinese population.

The aim of this study was to assess the association of empirically derived dietary patterns with cognitive function among a middle-aged and elder Chinese population. This study comprised 1676 Chinese adults ≥45 years of age, who participated in a Health Survey and completed semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) and cognitive screening test in the city of Linyi.We performed factor analysis using the principal component analysis method to identify the major dietary patterns. Binary logistic regression models were used to estimate odds ratio(OR) and 95% confidence interval(CI) for cognitive impairment according to quartiles of each dietary pattern score. Three dietary patterns were identified, namely traditional Chinese, Western-style and grains-fruits-vegetable patterns. A total of 362 participants (101 men and 261 women) were classified as cognitive impaired. After controlling for potential confounders, participants in the highest quartile of the Western-style pattern had a greater OR for incident cognitive impairment, compared to participants in the lowest quartile. Compared with the lowest quartile of grains-fruits-vegetable pattern, the highest quartile had a lower OR for incident cognitive impairment. Conclusions: Our findings demonstrate that the Western-style pattern is associated with an elevated risk and the grains-fruits-vegetables pattern is associated with a decreased risk of cognitive impairment.